How Trump’s Greenland plan could hit Ozempic, Lego and hearing aid companies

President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on several countries For many different reasons.

On Monday, he found a new purpose for his favorite economic tool. Trump said he would “impose tariffs on Denmark at a very high level” if it refuses to allow Greenland — a North American island considered an autonomous region within the Kingdom of Denmark — to become part of the United States.

“They have to give it up because we need it for national security,” Trump said of Greenland.

Denmark, with a population smaller than New York City, is not a major trading partner of the United States. The country – a US ally and NATO member – sent the United States more than Goods worth $11 billion In 2023, just a small slice of more than $3 trillion in imports. The United States, in turn, sends Denmark more than $5 billion in goods, including industrial machinery, computers, aircraft, and scientific instruments.

But despite its small size, Denmark, which handles Greenland’s foreign and security affairs, is home to some of America’s much-loved products, goods that could become more expensive if Trump continues to impose steep tariffs. according to Observatory of Economic Complexitya trade data platform, says nearly half of Denmark’s recent exports to the United States are packaged medicines, insulin, vaccines and antibiotics.

This is largely because the country is home to Novo Nordisk, the maker of the popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. The company is very important to the Danish economy It has recently been calculated for Half of Denmark’s private sector job growth and all of the country’s economic growth – what some have called Denmark’s “Pharmastate.“

Novo Nordisk It is working to increase its production in the United States To meet Growing demand for GLP-1 weight loss products. The company does not publicly specify how much of its products are exported, but it produces drugs in Denmark and the United States for the US market.

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement that they are closely monitoring the situation but did not comment on assumptions and speculation.

Denmark’s exports of immunological products, which include drugs like Ozempic, are “growing dramatically,” said Gilberto Garcia, chief economist at Datawheel and a member of the Observatory for Economic Complexity team.

Denmark is also a major U.S. supplier of hearing aids, he said.

In addition to medicines, Denmark also sends to the United States medical instruments, fish fillets, pork, coal tar oil, petroleum and baked goods, among other products, according to the ECO.

It is worth noting that for many children (and adults) Denmark is home to the world’s leading Lego Group The biggest toy maker.

It’s not clear how much Lego exports directly from Denmark to the US — the company serves a large portion of the US market through a factory in Mexico, as well as a new carbon-neutral facility in the US. Virginia. It also manufactures toy bricks In factories In Hungary, the Czech Republic, China and Vietnam, as well as Denmark. Lego did not respond to requests for comment.

But Lego, like other multinational companies with global supply chains that move raw materials and products around the world, could see its business disrupted by tariffs. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products coming to the United States from Mexico, China and other countries around the world, in addition to Denmark.

Trump’s threats to claim Greenland came at a staccato press conference in which the president-elect also suggested restoring the Panama Canal and making Canada an American country, all statements that raised the ire of foreign leaders.

Trump said on Tuesday that US ownership of Greenland is a national security issue, given the routes charted by Russian and Chinese ships.

“Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people,” said Greenlandic Prime Minister Mot Egedy he wrote on Facebook Tuesday. “Our future and our struggle for independence is our work.”

On Wednesday, a European Commission spokesperson described Trump’s comments about seizing Greenland as “hypothetical.” When asked about the tariff threats, the spokesman said the European Commission was preparing for all the possible ramifications of a Trump presidency on trade in Europe.

Few politicians in Europe are taking what Trump says literally, said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow in Brussels at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“This is an outrageous demand,” Mr. Kirkegaard said of Mr. Trump’s threats to seize Greenland. “The only way you can think logically about it is that by making this outrageous request, Trump is going to get some concessions that he wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”

Kirkegaard said that if Trump follows through on his threat to impose tariffs on Denmark, he can expect a reaction at the EU level. “The idea that he can pressure Denmark, as a single EU member state, to make political concessions by threatening tariffs will lead to retaliation from across the EU.”

Mr. Trump put tariffs into effect on numerous countries and hundreds of billions of dollars of goods in his first term. But other tariff threats never materialized, and it is unclear how many new ones he will follow through on.

On Tuesday, the president-elect repeated his threat to impose “very serious tariffs” on Mexico and Canada, complained about the US trade deficit with Canada and the European Union, and floated the idea of ​​renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of Mexico.” America.”